Federal regulators are ordering an inspection of thousands of Boeing aircraft over concerns that oxygen masks could fail to release in an emergency.
The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring a visual inspection of more than 2,600 Boeing 737 planes after receiving multiple reports that passenger oxygen generators shifted out of position because of a retention failure, according to an airworthiness directive released late Monday.
Inspectors will be looking at the configuration of the thermal pads of the retention straps, which hold oxygen generators in place, and determining whether airlines need to take action.
Until the inspections are completed, airlines cannot install any new oxygen generators or other affected hardware. The airworthiness directive, which is legally enforcing, takes effect in 15 days, and the FAA is requiring airlines to send comments within 45 days.
Boeing said it told operators to update a set of restraining straps on 737 oxygen generators in June, and that inspections of in-service fleet and undelivered airplanes have not identified any units that failed to operate properly.
“A new adhesive introduced on the straps in August 2019 has been found, under certain circumstances, to have allowed units to shift up to three quarters of an inch,” Boeing said. “We have gone back to the original adhesive for all new deliveries to ensure the generators remain firmly in place, as intended.”
An average Boeing 737 has 61 oxygen generators, with each generator containing two straps, according to Boeing.
This is the latest in a series of reputation hits that Boeing has suffered so far this year. After a door plug blew out mid-flight on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane in January, the Arlington, Virginia-based aircraft maker was hit with a barrage of regulatory scrutiny and complaints from multiple whistleblowers over the safety of its planes.
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On Tuesday, the embattled aerospace giant agreed to plead guilty on criminal charges that it conspired to defraud federal regulators about its autopilot control features that contributed to two fatal crashes involving its aircraft.
Boeing had agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion in January 2021 to settle charges that it defrauded the FAA’s Aircraft Evaluation Group about the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which impacted the flight control system of the Boeing 737 Max. But in May, the Department of Justice accused Boeing of violating the terms of a 2021 settlement agreement that required the manufacturer to tighten up its compliance and ethics program.